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At his hesitation, Nix puts a hand on his arm.

“See? We don’t hold shit back because they’re not worthy. We hold it back because sometimes, all the truth isn’t necessary; because it hurts, and because it absolutely doesn’t do anyone any good to hold it up to the light.”

He doesn’t want it to make sense, and while it doesn’t make the hurt disappear entirely, it helps.

“How are you so wise? It’s hard to take you seriously in a green fleecetoga.”

He laughs. “I could go without?” He offers to let it drop to the deck.

“Don’t stop on my account,” he chuckles, though it dies pretty quickly.

“What am I going to do about my mom? You’re right, my feelings are hurt. She lovesyou, but I’m not so sure about—”

“Don’t you even think it. Lauren talks about you constantly. I don’t mind because hey, it’s one of my favorite topics, too. Has it occurred to you that she tolerates us because of you?”

Leo raises a skeptical eyebrow. “No way.”

“No lie. But you’re right. When the time is right, you should ask the questions you need the answers to…just think about the answers you might want to hear first.”

There’s a bellow from inside, and then something hits the floor-to-ceiling windows on the second floor.

It’s a naked—and very aroused—Finn with his hands pressed to the glass, and he’s snarling what they both can see is Nix’s, and then Leo’s names.

It shoots a thrill through him, and he shivers.

Nix drops the blanket with a giggle as he walks backward, eyes still on Leo’s face.

“I am living my best life right now, you know?”

He jumps up to grab the bottom of the narrow platform deck eight feet over his head, then swings his feet up and over in a flip, using the edge of the deck to pull himself up.

There’s no railing, and he’s on his haunches looking down at Leo in the blink of an eye.

“Holy shit, Nix.”

“Better hurry, 266-266. Our alpha is waiting.”

He blows Leo a kiss and disappears.

Wait. What?

He’d seen the code on the directions when he’d been navigating, and he’d even used it to gain entrance to the house—but beyond them being just numbers, he hadn’t given them an extra thought. But—no way.

Leo pulls out the burner phone Gideon had entrusted to him, and there on the keypad are the letters that correspond to the code his mom hadchosen for the house’s security access.

2-6-6-2-6-6.

B-O-O-B-O-O.

It makes him smile when he sees this testament that his badass mom is thinking about him, even when she’s doing her spy shit six hundred miles away.

He’s suddenly reminded of her favorite part in that story about the honey-obsessed bear he can’t remember the name of.

“You are braver than you believe, Boo-Boo, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we’re apart…I’ll always be with you.”

Maybe he didn’t know about her past, but maybe he knows who she is, after all.

Interlude (Carnell)